Blog // Film

Now that winter has arrived in Bloomington, I’m immediately thinking back to our warm summer. A few months ago, I received several rolls of film back from the lab. These rolls contained miscellaneous photos I had shot over the course of the summer from farmer’s markets, family visits and hikes at the lake. Here are a few of my favorites:

Back in March I had a free half an hour to meander around the grounds of the historic West Baden Springs Hotel with my Rolleiflex before a photo shoot. The first time I visited the hotel as a child, I remember having to sign a waiver because the structure was in such disrepair that it was on the verge of collapse. Fast forward a couple decades later and it is great to see the hotel renovated and serving as a resort once again.

At the end of April, my wife and I traveled to New York for a long weekend to visit some good friends and do a bit of touristy sightseeing. I took the opportunity to leave my DSLR at home and shoot only with my Rolleiflex.

Earlier this year I finally got my 1954 Rolleiflex Automat repaired. It’s been a vintage paperweight since 2012 when the camera strap failed in a rainstorm and fell onto the sidewalk in the Chicago Loop. Thanks to Mark Hansen for going through the camera and repairing the busted viewfinder. I have shot film on and off again since 2010, primarily with a Holga. To test out the repair and to (re)teach myself how to shoot on the Rollei, I exposed a few rolls and sent them off to The Find Lab. Here are the results of a few recent jaunts around IU’s campus:

I recently dusted off my Holga and shot a few rolls of 120 for the first time in years. As much as I love Instagram, it was nice to shoot without the instant gratification. My goal is to shoot more with my Holga this summer to force myself to be less reliant on the screen on the back of my digital SLRs. I feel like I often get into a rut where I’m shooting, shooting, shooting and not really seeing or thinking. That’s the great thing about the Holga: it forces me back to basics.